Mini voted the greatest British car ever made

An online poll on the Autocar website has seen the original Mini voted as the best of British.

The Mini beat off opposition from the original Range Rover, which invented the luxury SUV in 1970, and the Jaguar E-Type, which was launched in 1961 and was reckoned to be the most beautiful car in the world at launch, a view shared even by Enzo Ferrari.

As it happens, we had a discussion in our office only yesterday about which British cars were genuinely iconic, and we came up with the same top three as Autocar readers. It is significant that their successors are either going strong (current Mini and new Range Rover) or about to be introduced (Jaguar F-Type).

Autocar's editor-in-chief Steve Cropley said: "The Mini had many faults and was never profitable, but it rewrote the rules and had the biggest impact on Britain's car industry that any car has had.
"It was one of the most remarkable cars ever built, what with its seating for four plus a decent boot in its mere 10-foot length, revolutionary drive-train and gearbox and its ultra-compact suspension."

The poll comes against the background of long-term growth of car manufacturing in Britain. The industry hopes that the record production figure of 1.92 million cars set in 1972 will be overtaken – possibly as soon as 2015.